I'm not the biggest fan of Rocky Road ice cream, as the traditional combination of a chocolate base, chopped walnuts, and marshmallows comes off as a bit too basic for my mix-ins craving palate. But the description of Blue Bell's Rocky Mountain Road piqued my interest, since it seems to offer more than the basics. Blue Bell describes this flavor as A rich, dark chocolate ice cream combined with dark chocolate-coated peanuts, milk chocolate-coated pecans, white chocolate-coated almonds, and roasted walnuts, all surrounded by a flavorful marshmallow sauce swirl, and since I am a sucker for chocolate-coated nuts, well, I just had to indulge!
Tearing off the lid, I was greeted by a reasonably appealing sight: Chocolate ice cream with a generous swirl of white marshmallow. However, there was no evidence of the four different types of nuts that the description promised. Not to worry! As soon as my spoon slid in to the ice cream, a profusion of nuts was revealed, with the great bulk of them being the chocolate-covered varieties rather than the plain walnuts! Even better was the taste. Rather than the feared bland ordinary rocky road concoction, my mouth experienced the joyous sensation of chomping through dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate coated nuts. The barrage of chocolate covered nuts never let up, top to bottom the container was full of them!
Furthermore, the profusion of these candied nuts blended very well with the base ice cream and the marshmallow swirl. The swirl was provided in just the right amount: Enough to add a nice sweet marshmallow flavor to the predominantly chocolate taste, but not too much so as to overwhelm it. Also, rather than being the advertised dark chocolate, the base had the look and taste of a lighter milk-chocolate ice cream, which I found very agreeable, as it contrasted nicely with the richer candy-chocolate taste of the nuts. Bottom line: If you like lots of chocolate-coated nut mix-ins, you can hardly do better than Rocky Mountain Road!
Where Steve Found It: Winn-Dixie
Steve's Grade: A